I spend a lot
of time with my new students-professional or
amateur-on what I believe to be the most
important concept that drives the “core of
singing,” whether pop, musical theater,
opera or country ... and is best illustrated
in my Five C’s concept. (Please refer to
April, 2010, for a review!)
Energy ...
That’s a BIG E, as it is the directed energy
driving the legato line of singing from the
instant the first shot of breath-pressure to
the center of the first vowel of the first
note of every phrase-followed by flexible
pressure on demand, that gives you your best
shot at arriving at the end of each phrase,
having sung predictably with the results you
desired. Lots of words to describe how to
sing even a simple phrase but ... it really,
really works.
It has always been my trademark to begin
each phrase, decisively ... going somewhere!
In a conversation with my student Tessa,
last Saturday while we sang together through
the second act of La Bohème,
I explained again how important it is to
know “where to pop and rest” to get the
diaphragm ready to kick ... in exactly at
the instant dictated by the music.
Coordination: pop-rest-sing! Except for the
times when one must get air in the span of a
sixteenth note-for instance-the TIMING is
always the same! Pop your belly out-air
comes in instantaneously-a half second
rest-to purge the body of accumulating
tension-and the kicking in of the BB to
Crisply start the tone for the next phrase.
Timing, yes ... but ... KNOWING THE MUSIC,
VISCERALLY-not just your music but
also knowing the melody lines and cues for
everyone on stage with you, so you always
know when it is your time to sing. It
became a little clearer for Tessa, as I
randomly cued up the music of the recording
some bars before our respective cues, to get
her musically used to when she had to
“pop-rest-sing.” It didn’t matter where I
started, I immediately began singing the
line of whatever singer was “up!” and then,
singing each of the other character’s lines
up to her cue, then singing the other lines
of the other singers whether it be Rodolfo,
Musetta, Colline, Schaunard, etc. (I have
sung many, many performances of Bohème
and directed it two times as well.)
I also teach
all of my singers to conduct themselves so
they always know where they are in the
music. Where there are some difficult
musical passages, I have my students sit
down at the piano and teach them how to play
it themselves, again and again, until they
OWN IT! (Conducting Puccini ain’t
easy, but Tessa is really getting good at
singing and conducting the 3/4 bar that
appears in a melody of 2/4 several times.
Keeps her on top of the music and she is
just getting better and better.
Please go back
and review The Five C’s ... All music flows
the more beautifully along if your right arm
knows how to anticipate the 3/4 bar in a
host of 2/4's ... and the ability to
properly choreograph your arm for an “allargondo”-which
should have been Puccini’s middle
name-without losing the beat! You might also
check the how to conduct a 5/8 bar, because
Puccini never wasted a note, never too much,
never to little.
(You might
enjoy his 1/4 note bar, in Butterball, Page
39, Schirmer.
There are lots of things to
learn if you choose the life of Opera, lots
and lots ... and I teach them all!
